Lander's Travels eBook

About the same time a moorish wedding was celebrated,
the ceremony of which is thus described by Mr. Park.
“In the evening the tabala or large drum was
beaten to announce a wedding, which was held at one
of the neighbouring tents. A great number of
people of both sexes assembled, but without that mirth
and hilarity which take place at a negro wedding;
here there was neither singing nor dancing, nor any
other amusement that I could perceive. A woman
was beating the drum, and the other women joining
at times like a chorus, by setting up a shrill scream,
and at the same time moving their tongues from one
side of the mouth to the other with great celerity.
I was soon tired and had returned to my hut where
I was sitting almost asleep, when an old woman entered
with a wooden bowl in her hand, and signified that
she had brought me a present from the bride. Before
I could recover from the surprise which this message
created, the woman discharged the content of the bowl
full in my face. Finding that it was the same
sort of holy water, with which, among the Hottentots,
a priest is said to sprinkle a new-married couple,
I began to suspect that the old lady was actuated
by mischief or malice, but she gave me seriously to
understand, that it was a nuptial benediction from
the bride’s own person, and which, on such occasions,
is always received by the young unmarried Moors as
a mark of distinguished favour. This being the
ease, I wiped my face and sent my acknowledgments to
the lady. The wedding drum continued to beat,
and the women to sing, or rather to whistle during
the whole of the night. About nine in the morning,
the bride was brought in state from her mother’s
tent, attended by a number of women, who carried her
tent, being a present from her husband, some bearing
up the poles, others holding by the strings, and in
this manner they marched, whistling as formerly, until
they came to the place appointed for her residence,
where they pitched the tent. The husband followed
with a number of men leading four bullocks, which
they tied to the tent strings, and having killed another,
and distributed the beef among the people, the ceremony
was concluded.”

CHAPTER VII.

Mr. Park had now been detained a whole month in Ali’s
camp, during which each returning day brought him
fresh distresses. In the evening alone, his oppressors
left him to solitude and reflection. About midnight,
a bowl of kouskous, with some salt and water, was brought
for him and his two attendants, being the whole of
their allowance for the following day, for it was
at this time the Mahometan Lent, which, being kept
with religious strictness by the Moors, they thought
proper to compel their Christian captive to a similar
abstinence. Time, in some degree, reconciled him
to his forlorn state: he now found that he could
bear hunger and thirst better than he could have anticipated;
and at length endeavoured to amuse himself by learning
to write Arabic. The people, who came to see him,
soon made him acquainted with the characters.
When he observed any one person, whose countenance
he thought malignant, Mr. Park almost always asked
him to write on the sand, or to decipher what he had
written, and the pride of showing superior attainment
generally induced him to comply with the request.